White clouds drifted by, and the dragon flew at high speed over the Ten Thousand Mountains. Below, the green peaks and valleys rushed past. The ten masters on the dragon's back were all lost in their own thoughts and remained silent.
Before setting off, the ten people had met and recognized each other, but at this moment, everyone was silent, pondering the various variables they might encounter in the deadly wasteland.
Among these people, Xiao Feng was the oldest, nearly thirty years old. He was tall, rugged, and very masculine. Wang Tian and Carrie were the next oldest, around twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old. Wang Tian had a full beard and was a burly man with a somewhat thuggish appearance, resembling a gangster boss. Carrie, on the other hand, had melancholy in her eyes; although she was in her early twenties, she gave off a sense of world-weariness.
The remaining seven were all around the same age, between twenty and twenty-five. Unlike the slender and beautiful women of ordinary women, the female Tyrannosaurus Knight Lisa was very tall, no shorter than her younger brother Thorne. The two siblings sat together, close to the dragon's neck, guiding it in the direction Chen Nan had indicated.
Among the seven men, Qianlong and Lingyun were undoubtedly the two most handsome, comparable to Pan An and Song Yu in appearance, but their temperaments were completely different.
Qianlong lay lazily on the dragon's back, very casually, like the naughty boy next door, yet giving people a friendly feeling. Ling Yun came from the Ling family, one of the ten great cultivation families of the Eastern Continent. He was the youngest son of the current head of the Ling family. He had an air of nobility about him, and always had a smile on his face. He was a typical well-mannered young master from a noble family.
Of the ten, Alice, the female magician from the Illusion Magic Academy, is undoubtedly the most mysterious. To this day, she still wears a veil, and no one has ever seen her true face. She is an enigmatic woman.
If we were to name the most eye-catching among the ten, it would undoubtedly be Meng Ke'er, the most outstanding successor of the Tantai Ancient Holy Land. She seems to be enveloped in a seven-colored halo, becoming the focus of attention wherever she goes. Indeed, Meng Ke'er is incredibly beautiful. Her beauty is otherworldly, seemingly not belonging to this mortal realm, like a fairy descended from the heavens to the mortal world. She exudes a spiritual aura, truly embodying the essence of heaven and earth.
Chen Nan was the one among the ten who knew the most about the Deathly Abyss. At this moment, he had already shaken off the sadness of parting with Xiao Chenxi. He was very close to Meng Ke'er, no more than half a zhang away. Although the wind was strong, he could still smell her faint fragrance. His gaze roamed freely over Meng Ke'er, without treating her as a fairy from the ancient holy land at all.
He harbored deep prejudice against the Tantai Sect. Ever since learning that Meng Ke'er was a successor of the Tantai Sect, he had been unable to remain calm and began to ponder how to deal with this sect in the future. Chen Nan himself was somewhat puzzled, wondering why he had become somewhat wicked, actually transferring his resentment towards Tantai Xuan onto her successor.
Perhaps his resentment towards Tantai Xuan ran too deep; she was the one who caused his cultivation to plummet, leading him to give up on himself. If it weren't for her, he might have smoothly advanced to the supreme realm of martial arts like his father, and wouldn't have experienced so many hardships.
Resurrected after countless millennia, the past has vanished like smoke. Amidst the bustling prosperity, Chen Nan's heart is filled with profound loneliness and sorrow, as if everything around him is nothing but an illusion, destined to dissipate like fireworks at any moment. His seemingly foolish behavior is merely an attempt to forget those distant memories and his lonely self…
This is perhaps why he wants to take revenge on Tantai Xuan and everything related to her.
Chen Nan felt more and more clearly that his "true self" from ten thousand years ago had been resurrected. Perhaps it was because the emotional seal that his father had placed on his mind had been broken; perhaps it was because his trip to the ancient immortal ruins had deeply touched his soul; perhaps it was because the family's profound skills were constantly reversing, stimulating the dark nature within him and stirring up huge waves in his inner world...
Meng Ke'er clearly knew that Chen Nan was openly staring at her. Her Daoist martial arts cultivation method emphasized cultivating the mind, and she had already guessed that Chen Nan was deliberately disturbing her cultivation. A cold light flashed in her eyes, but it disappeared immediately. With a faint smile on her face, she glanced back at Chen Nan, and then turned her head away.
The dragon flew at lightning speed, and hundreds of miles were nothing to it. A dark cloud appeared in the distance, and the dark clouds covered the mountains, giving people a heavy and oppressive feeling, like demonic clouds or demonic mist.
Chen Nan felt the ancient god's relic begin to heat up, and the jade ruyi sensed the overwhelming demonic energy in the distance. He was alarmed; if the jade ruyi were to emit an intense light in a moment, it would be ruined, and the other nine experts would surely discover its secret.
He hurriedly stroked the jade ruyi and whispered in an almost inaudible voice, "Although I don't know what's so strange about you, I do know that you already have sentience and definitely understand what I'm saying. From now on, don't show any abnormalities, or others will notice. Of course, if demonic energy invades and I can't dispel it, you must protect me with holy light, just like last time. Otherwise, if I perish, you will be buried deep underground again."
Chen Nan felt a little embarrassed for threatening a strange divine jade. He looked up and, seeing that no one was paying attention to him, breathed a sigh of relief.
A soft sigh escaped his lips, and suddenly a young woman's voice echoed in his mind: "Protect...you, who...are you? And who...am I? Who...am I...sleeping..." The voice faded away.
Chen Nan was really startled. This was the first time he had heard the whispers inside the jade ruyi while he was awake. He concentrated all his attention to listen carefully, but he could no longer hear any sound, as if nothing had happened.
The wind howled as Yalong soared through the clouds and leaped over the mountains, getting closer and closer to the towering mountain with its dark clouds looming overhead. At this moment, the ten masters had already sensed the subtle and unusual fluctuations.
A moment later, the group was less than ten miles away from the mountain shrouded in billowing demonic energy, and could clearly see the bands of demonic clouds swirling and surging around the mountain.
At this point, the dragon began to become restless, letting out low growls in the air as if it were telling Lisa something, and it seemed very reluctant to continue.
At this moment, as they drew closer, everyone clearly felt that the fluctuation had become exceptionally strong, and an extremely uneasy feeling welled up in everyone's heart, a chill rising from their hearts.
Lisa kept reassuring the dragon to keep going. After a few more miles, it was less than five miles from the mountain ahead. But the dragon refused to go any further and began to circle in the air.
At this moment, everyone could clearly see the terrifying scene ahead from high in the sky. At the foot of the mountain shrouded in thick demonic clouds was a valley, from which billowing demonic energy rose continuously. The terrifying scene made people tremble in their hearts.
Given that the dragon had begun to tremble and refused to move forward, Lisa had to order it to land on the ground, and the ten decided to proceed on foot.
As they walked, they caught a whiff of a delicate fragrance, like orchids and musk. The subtle scent was refreshing and pleasant. Since they already knew from Chen Nan that this was the eerie fragrance of the Flower of Death, they didn't find it strange.
After crossing two small hills and traversing numerous thorny thickets, the ten finally arrived at the entrance to the Deathly Abyss. The valley was dark and gloomy, with demonic energy constantly rising and swirling towards the mountain it nestled against. Above the mountain, billowing demonic energy blotted out the sun, and thick demonic clouds churned and surged high in the sky, as if a ferocious demon was stirring up trouble.